Fanfic reading patterns
Aug. 15th, 2013 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tardis_stowawayI've been thinking lately about preferences in fanfic reading. Most of my favorite genres and tropes of fic remain the same across fandoms, but there are some types of fic I seek out strongly in one fandom but rarely in other fandoms.
Some things I enjoy in any fandom include hurt/comfort, plotty adventures, my OTP (or OT3) pining with UST at great length and then finally getting together, and crack. I like stories that solve unanswered questions from canon or make you look at canon in a new way. Witty banter, world building, and women being BAMFs make me very happy. I get excited about genderswap.
In Doctor Who fandom, I especially adore stories that take advantage of the show's ability to cross time and dimensions so that characters interact with past, future, or alternate versions of people they know. (This taste is glaringly obvious from the fics I've written.) I like fix-its and canon divergence AUs in any fandom, but I REALLY seek them out for Doctor Who. There are just so many tears that could have been averted if things just went a little differently!
In Sherlock fandom, I read AUs of the sort that start the characters out in a setting wildly different from canon. I don't want to read about the Doctor being anyone other than a Time Lord from Gallifrey traveling in the TARDIS, but I will happily read about Sherlock and John in roles other than detective and doctor/blogger in 21st-century London. As Mrs. Hudson says, we get all sorts 'round here. I've read Sherlock and John as a vampire and guardsman in a fantasy world, as high school students, with daemons in a fusion with His Dark Materials, (linked story, "The Republic of Heaven," is a WIP that hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but still my favorite of the many fics featuring this fusion), in space, with genderswapped Watson as a witch, as Hollywood actors, in a 19th-century operahouse for a Phantom of the Opera fusion, and even in 1970's West Virginia. (Y'all, I highly recommend that Appalachian!lock fic, "The Bone Fiddle." It not only does a splendid job of fitting the characters into their setting--Sherlock's a local eccentric who drives an old hearse and plays the fiddle--it's also a cracking good case fic with some marvelously creepy bits and fantastic Sherlock/John romance.) Sherlock itself is a modern AU of the Victorian canon, so perhaps this was inevitable. Sherlock and John are such distinctive personalities that they can be recognizable and interesting in any number of settings.
It's been a while since I read much Merlin fic (and I still haven't seen the last season), and I don't have strong preferences unique to this fandom. Many of my favorite stories either emphasize the magic and mythological aspects or offer richer characterizations of Morgana and other "villainous" female characters than the show did. (That isn't hard to do.)
Lately I've been reading a bunch of Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe fics. In this fandom, I have a weird fondness for curtainfic. If a fic involves moving, purchasing furniture, cooking breakfast, adopting pets, difficulty with everyday technology, or team movie night, I am all over that. I will occasionally read very domestic stories in other fandoms, but not nearly as much as for the Avengers. I think part of that is just the nature of the fandom (because most of the characters moving into Avengers Tower after the movie is widely accepted fanon, there are a lot of fics where setting up living space is a plot point), and partially the fact that where I am right now in life I find it very comforting to read about characters moving in with their friends and having a billionaire fund the interior decorating. Also, I read a lot of fics with Darcy Lewis (of Thor), who is more likely to save the office organizational system than to directly save the world.
What about you, friends? Are there any interesting patterns in what sorts of fanfic you enjoy in different fandoms or at different times in your life?
Some things I enjoy in any fandom include hurt/comfort, plotty adventures, my OTP (or OT3) pining with UST at great length and then finally getting together, and crack. I like stories that solve unanswered questions from canon or make you look at canon in a new way. Witty banter, world building, and women being BAMFs make me very happy. I get excited about genderswap.
In Doctor Who fandom, I especially adore stories that take advantage of the show's ability to cross time and dimensions so that characters interact with past, future, or alternate versions of people they know. (This taste is glaringly obvious from the fics I've written.) I like fix-its and canon divergence AUs in any fandom, but I REALLY seek them out for Doctor Who. There are just so many tears that could have been averted if things just went a little differently!
In Sherlock fandom, I read AUs of the sort that start the characters out in a setting wildly different from canon. I don't want to read about the Doctor being anyone other than a Time Lord from Gallifrey traveling in the TARDIS, but I will happily read about Sherlock and John in roles other than detective and doctor/blogger in 21st-century London. As Mrs. Hudson says, we get all sorts 'round here. I've read Sherlock and John as a vampire and guardsman in a fantasy world, as high school students, with daemons in a fusion with His Dark Materials, (linked story, "The Republic of Heaven," is a WIP that hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but still my favorite of the many fics featuring this fusion), in space, with genderswapped Watson as a witch, as Hollywood actors, in a 19th-century operahouse for a Phantom of the Opera fusion, and even in 1970's West Virginia. (Y'all, I highly recommend that Appalachian!lock fic, "The Bone Fiddle." It not only does a splendid job of fitting the characters into their setting--Sherlock's a local eccentric who drives an old hearse and plays the fiddle--it's also a cracking good case fic with some marvelously creepy bits and fantastic Sherlock/John romance.) Sherlock itself is a modern AU of the Victorian canon, so perhaps this was inevitable. Sherlock and John are such distinctive personalities that they can be recognizable and interesting in any number of settings.
It's been a while since I read much Merlin fic (and I still haven't seen the last season), and I don't have strong preferences unique to this fandom. Many of my favorite stories either emphasize the magic and mythological aspects or offer richer characterizations of Morgana and other "villainous" female characters than the show did. (That isn't hard to do.)
Lately I've been reading a bunch of Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe fics. In this fandom, I have a weird fondness for curtainfic. If a fic involves moving, purchasing furniture, cooking breakfast, adopting pets, difficulty with everyday technology, or team movie night, I am all over that. I will occasionally read very domestic stories in other fandoms, but not nearly as much as for the Avengers. I think part of that is just the nature of the fandom (because most of the characters moving into Avengers Tower after the movie is widely accepted fanon, there are a lot of fics where setting up living space is a plot point), and partially the fact that where I am right now in life I find it very comforting to read about characters moving in with their friends and having a billionaire fund the interior decorating. Also, I read a lot of fics with Darcy Lewis (of Thor), who is more likely to save the office organizational system than to directly save the world.
What about you, friends? Are there any interesting patterns in what sorts of fanfic you enjoy in different fandoms or at different times in your life?
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-15 09:49 pm (UTC)CURTAINFIC YES. I like domestic fics in general but I especially like seeing superheroes trying (and often failing) to have normal lives, too. :P
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-16 01:09 am (UTC)I think curtainfic may be especially appealing for superheroes because of the fact that they have this duality in their lives where sometimes they are doing this crazy epic world-saving stuff, but the rest of the time they live in a house (or apartment, or mansion) like a normal person. They aren't off in space or back in time or on Middle Earth. They're like us, only super, and often not quite fitting into the world around them. Movies and comics show us these little glimpses of their attempts at normal lives, but fandom is often curious about more.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-16 01:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-16 02:47 pm (UTC)Also, whee, fic recs! From all the ones you mentioned, I only read The dangerous book for boys, which I loved. I've been meaning to read Performance In a Leading Role for ages. I have read several HDM crossovers (I totally feel like rereading those books now, I just got the whole boxset recently!) but not the one you recommended.
My preferences? Pretty much like yours. I pretty much only read shippy fics in DW fandom. Funnily enough, I like the sad ones too, and they don't necessarily need to end happily. Maybe the show made me resistant to all the heartbreak? And I also love post-episode fics and fix-its, to balance it out, I guess. Since my two ships are Nine/Rose and Ten/Rose and Eleven/River, occasionally I like to read stories where Eleven meets Rose or they meet older/younger versions of themselves, and, usually, heartbreak ensues ;) I don't read much proper AUs in that fandom.
Sherlock, the more romantic and shippy the better ;) I don't like case fics where there's more plot than feelings, and a fic can never be shippy enough, heh. Just like you, I adore totally out there AUs. I am so bad with fics recs, but one of the fics I really liked was a Beauty And The Beast themed AU. I also love love fics where they're teenagers, just like that wonderful The dangerous book for boys. And I love loooots of UST, and us getting to read about them meeting for the first time rather than them knowing each other already. I love long fics, but rarely have the time to start reading them *le sigh*
Aaaaah, I haven't had a Sherlock marathon in ages! I should do it, and then read some of the fics you posted. Thanks so much! :D